Extinct Birds - Aves - Ornithology - Conservation - Birding in India Extinct Birds - Ornithology Haast's Eagle attacking New Zealand Moa Since 1600, over 100 species of birds have become extinct, and this rate of extinction seems to be increasing. The situation is exemplified by Hawaii, where 30% of all now-extinct species originally lived. Other areas, such as Guam, have also been hard hit; Guam has lost over 60% of its native species in the last 30 years, many of them to imported snakes. There are today about 10,000 species of birds , and 1186 of them are considered to be under threat of extinction. Island species in general, and flightless island species in particular are most at risk. The disproportionate number of rails in the list reflects the tendency of that family to lose the ability to fly when geographically isolated. List of extinct species: Ratites Aepyornis (Aepyornis maximus) Moa (Dinornithiformes) Large flightless birds in New Zealand. They were probably already extinct in 1642 when Europeans landed there.

The extinction of the moa and its main predator, the Harpagornis, is attributed to the arrival of human settlers around 1000 AD. Very early European arrivals, ca 1830-40, described seeing birds that might have been the last of the moa but the sightings have never been reliably confirmed. New Zealand has no significant indigenous mammal life. The entire animal ecology consisted of birds, with the moa filling the niche of deer or cattle, and the harpagornis filling the niche of the wolf or tiger. There were ten species. Amongst them were Slender Moa (Dinornis robustus), Great Broad-billed Moa (Euryapteryx gravis) and Lesser Megalapteryx, (Megalapteryx didinus). It has been long suspected that the species of moa described as Euryapteryx curtus / E. exilis, E. huttonii/ E. crassus, and Pachyornis septentrionalis / P. mappini constituted males and females, respectively. This has been confirmed by analysis for sex-specific genetic markers of DNA extracted from bone material.

More interestingly, the former three species of Dinornis: D. giganteus = robustus, D. novaezealandiae and D. struthioides have turned out to be males (struthioides) and females of only two species, one each formerly occurring on New Zealands North Island (D. novaezealandiae) and South Island (D. robustus). Moa females were larger than males, being up to 150% of the male's size and 280% of their weight. This phenomenon - reverse size dimorphism, is not uncommon amongst ratites, being most pronounced in moa and kiwis. On a side note, the plural form of moa is also moa, as Maori words do not feature plurals. King Island Emu (Dromaius ater) - Australia 1850 Kangaroo Island Emu (Dromaius baudinianus) - Australia 1827 Ducks, geese and swans Korean Crested Shelduck (Tadorna cristata) Officially critically endangered due to recent unconfirmed reports. Last confirmed record in 1964.

Rï¿½union Shelduck (Alopochen kervazoi) - Mascarenes 1674 Mauritian Shelduck (Alopochen mauritianus) - Mascarenes 1698 Amsterdam Island Duck (Anas marecula) - Amsterdam Island 1800 Mauritian Duck (Anas theodori) - Mascarenes 1710 Pink-headed Duck (Netta caryophyllacea). Officially critically endangered, but probably extinct. The only area in which it might reasonably still exist is Northern Myanmar due to its remoteness. Reports of Pink-headed Duck continue to be received from this area, but searches have been inconclusive. Madagascar Pochard (Aythya innotata) Officially critically endangered, but probably extinct: only one, a semi-captive bird at Antananarivo Botanic Gardens, seen alive since 1991, this bird dying in 1992. Labrador Duck (Camptorhynchus labradorius). This eider-like sea duck was never very common. Although it has been hunted for food, it probably died out because of decline of mussels and shellfish due to pollution.

The last one was seen at Elmira, New York, in 1878. Auckland Islands Merganser (Mergus australis) - Auckland Islands 1902 Nēnē-nui (Branta hylobadistes) Branta (new species), Hawaiian Giant Goose Chendytes lawi, flightless diving duck, common to the California Coast, California Channel Islands, and possibly southern Oregon. Lived in the Pleistocene and survived into the Holocene. Appears to have gone extinct about 3000 BP. Remains found in fossil deposits and in early archeological sites. Probably driven to extinction by hunting and loss of habitat. Quails and relatives Heath Hen (Tympanuchus cupido cupido), a subspecies of the Greater Prairie-Chicken New Zealand Quail (Coturnix novaezelandiae) - New Zealand, 1875 Himalayan Quail (Ophrysia superciliosa). Officially critically endangered.

Not recorded with certainty since 1876, but thorough surveys are still required, and there is a recent set of possible (though unlikely) sightings around Nainital (India) in 2003. A little-known native name from western Nepal probably refers to this bird, but for various reasons, no survey for Ophrysia has ever been conducted in that country, nor is it generally assumed to occur there (due to the native name being overlooked). Grebes Colombian Grebe (Podiceps andinus) Last seen in Colombia in 1977. Atitlan Grebe (Podilymbus gigas) Last seen in Guatemala in 1986.

Petrels St Helena Bulwer's Petrel (Bulweria bifax) - St Helena 1550 St Helena Gadfly Petrel (Pterodroma rupinarum) - St Helena 1550 Guadalupe Storm Petrel (Oceanodroma macrodacyla) Cormorants and related birds New Zealand Little Bittern (Ixobrychus novazelandiae) - New Zealand 1900 Rï¿½union Night Heron (Nycticorax duboisi) - Mascarenes 1674 Mauritius Night Heron (Nycticorax mauritianus) - Mascarenes 1700 Rodrigues Night Heron (Nycticorax megacephalus) - Mascarenes 1761 Rï¿½union Flightless Ibis (Threskiornis solitarius) - Mascarenes 1750. Old descriptions match a flightless Sacred Ibis quite well. Apteribis, a small flightless ibis from the Hawaiian Islands.

Bird of prey Argentavis (Argentavis magnificens) Guadalupe Caracara (Polyborus lutosus) Haast's Eagle (Harpagornis moorei). Giant eagle (up to 2.6m wingspan) endemic to New Zealand. Extinct approximately 1400 A.D. due to habitat loss and the extinction of its large flightless bird (Moa) prey following human occupation. Flexiraptor (Pengana robertbolesi), an Australian caracara-like bird that lived 23-16 million years ago in Queensland.

Rails Chatham Islands Rail (Rallus modestus) Wake Island Rail (Rallus wakensis) Tahitian Red-billed Rail (Rallus pacificus) Ascension Island Rail (Atlantisia elpenor) Kusaie Island Crake (Porzana monasa) Hawaiian Rail (Porzana sandwichensis) Samoan Wood Rail (Gallinula pacifica) Lord Howe Swamphen (Porphyrio albus) Mauritius Red Hen (Aphanapteryx bonasia) Leguat's Gelinote (Aphanapteryx leguatz) White-winged Sandpiper (Prosobonia leucoptera) Eskimo Curlew (Numenius borealis) Great Auk (Alca impennis) or (Pinguinus impennis). At 75 centimeters, the flightless Great Auk was the largest of the auks. It was hunted to extinction for food and down for mattresses. The last pair were killed July 3, 1844. Pigeons and Dodos Dodo Liverpool Pigeon (Caloenas maculata).

Also known as the Spotted Green Pigeon, the only specimen has been in Liverpool Museum since 1851, and was probably collected on a Pacific island for Edward Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby. Rodrigues Pigeon (Columba rodericana) Bonin Wood Pigeon (Columba versicolor) Mauritius Blue Pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissima) Extinct in 19th century. Forster's Dove of Tanna (Gallicolumba ferruginea) Marquesas Fruit Pigeon (Ptilinopus mercierii) Choiseul Crested Pigeon (Microgoura meeki) Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius). The passenger pigeon was once probably the most common bird in the world. It was hunted close to extinction for food and sport in the late 19th century. The last one died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. Dodo (Raphus cucullatus), called Didus ineptus by Linnaeus. A meter-high flightless bird on Mauritius.

Its forest habitat was lost when Dutch settlers moved to the island and the dodo's nests were destroyed by the rats, pigs, and cats the Dutch brought with them. The last specimen was killed in 1681, only 80 years after the arrival of the new predators. Of the 45 bird species originally found on Mauritius, 24 are now extinct. Rodrigues Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria). Last seen c.1730. Parrots Norfolk Island Kaka (Nestor productus) Paradise Parrot (Psephotus pulcherrimus) Rodrigues Little Owl (Athene murivora) Laughing Owl (Sceloglaux albifacies) - New Zealand Nightjars Jamaica Least Pauraque (Siphonorhis americanus) Hummingbirds Brace's Emerald (Chlorostilbon bracei) - Bahamas 1900 Gould's Emerald (Chlorostilbon elegans) - Jamaica & Bahamas 1900 Kingfishers and related birds Ryukyu Kingfisher (Halcyon miyakoensis). - a sub-species of Micronesian Kingfisher (Halycon cinnamomina).

St Helena Hoopoe (Upupa antaois) - St Helena 1550 Woodpeckers Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) This species was believed to be extinct since 1987, when the last positive sighting was made in Cuba. However, at least one living male was rediscovered in Arkansas in 2004 and 2005. Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis) This 60-centimeter-long woodpecker is officially listed as critically endangered and is believed to now be extinct. Passerines Stephens Island Wren (Xenicus lyalli) New Zealand Bush Wren (Xenicus longipes) Bonin Islands Thrush (Zoothera terrestris) Bay Thrush (Turdus ulietensis) - Society Islands 1774-1850. A completely mysterious bird from Raiatea, now only known from a painting and some descriptions of a (now lost) specimen. Its taxonomic position is unresolvable, although for biogeographic reasons and because of the surviving material, it possibly was a honeyeater.

However, with the discovery of fossils of the prehistorically extinct starling Aplonis diluvialis on neighboring Huahine, it seems more likely that this bird also belonged into this genus. Grand Cayman Thrush (Turdus ravidus) Kittlitz's Thrush (Zoothera terrestis) Chatham Island Fernbird (Bowdleria rufescens) Aldabran Brush Warbler (Nesillas aldabranus) Lord Howe Gerygone (Gerygone insularis) Guam Flycatcher (Myiagra freycineti) Maupiti Monarch (Pomarea pomerea) - Society Islands 1850 South Island Piopio (Turnagra capensis) North Island Piopio (Turnagra tanagra) Lord Howe Island White-eye (Zosterops strenua) Kioea (Chaetoptila angustipluma) The Life of Birds | Evolution by Gareth Huw Davies Birds arrived comparatively late on Planet Earth. First came insects, in the unimaginably distant past. For over 100 million years or more they ruled the skies. But these were mere pioneers of the air.

Think of them, in aviation terms, as the flimsy open-cockpit planes of the early 20th Century. Then, several hundred million years ago, huge and often terrifying new life forms, Pterosaurs, or flying dinosaurs, took the ascendancy. These massive creatures had wings of skin, stretched between one enormously elongated finger and their flanks. Around 150 million years ago they were joined by - or, as many scientists say, they began to turn into - a much more aerodynamic, feathered creature. The bird was born. And so the flimsy biplane ceded aerial mastery to nature's many equivalents of the Boeing 767, Concorde, the B52 bomber, the stealth fighter. A huge variety of ancient bird types have come and gone and evolved to give us the 9000 different species we know today. Many scientists are convinced that birds evolved from the dinosaurs. Numerous finds in recent years have seemed to support the hypothesis that birds descended from two-legged, running dinosaurs called theropods.

Pterosaurs were among the first vertebrates in the air This theory was born with the discovery of a 150-million-year-old fossilised creature in a swamp in Germany in the 1860s. Archaeopteryx was possibly the most controversial prehistoric remain ever dug up. It is the oldest known bird fossil. Most biologists accept it as conclusive proof that dinosaurs sired birds. Archaeopteryx had three toes armed with claws and long, strong legs. Clearly it walked and perched like a bird. Its head had the reptilian feature of jaw bones. Its spine was extended into a bony tail - just like a reptile's. On both sides of the tail bones, clearly visible, were the clinching characteristics of birds - feathers. But not all scientists agree with the birds-from-dinosaurs link. Alan Feduccia, professor of biology at the University of North Carolina, is a noteable doubter. He contends that Archaeopteryx wasn't the ancestor of all birds, but just another of nature's many experiments. He argues that a huge evolution of birds had been going on before[italics] Archaeopteryx, and that they evolved from four-legged forest reptiles.

In 1996 Feduccia investigated an intriguing bird that lived about 135 million years ago, just after Archaeopteryx. The bird, Liaoningornis, did not look like a dinosaur bird at all. It had a breastbone similar to modern birds, with massive flight muscles that enabled longer flights. It was found alongside fossils of ancient birds not unlike Archaeopteryx. Feduccia believes that birds were very widespread by that date, occupying a variety of habitats. He believes most of them died out with the dinosaurs, about 65 million years ago. The ancestors of all today's birds evolved later, he says, between 65 and 53 million years ago, independently of the dinosaurs. This is the "big bang theory" of birds. Feduccia and his fellow sceptics - it must be stressed they are in the minority - regard any similarity between birds and dinosaurs as an example of convergent evolution, by which two independent groups grow to look alike. However the dinosuar-to-birds theory took another startling turn recently with the discovery of two species of feathered dinosaurs in China, dating from between 145 million and 125 million years ago.

"This is the most important dinosaur discovery of this century," said Philip J. Currie of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta. "The credibility of the dinosaur-to-birds theory takes a gigantic leap ahead with these specimens." While scientists continue to debate exactly where birds came from, nobody denies that their subsequent success in colonising the planet has been immense. Since the catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs - now commonly believed to have been a huge meteor - birds have taken total command of the skies. For a time, when the early mammals were still quite small, birds effectively ruled the planet. Huge flightless "terror-birds" stalked the land. Mighty vultures cruised the skies. One had a wingspan of over twenty feet - bigger even that that of the Andean Condor, and probably the biggest flying bird that has ever existed. The power of flight gave birds the edge over most other creatures. They could travel futher and wider in search of food, and live where no other creature could go.

Millions of years of evolution have adapted each bird species to fit into its own little niche and pre-programmed it to feed, to migrate, to nest and breed in its own particular place and manner. Birds have adapted so well to the demands of and trials set by our planet that Sir David Attenborough believes they may be the most successful creatures on earth, more successful even than insects. Archaeop- teryx glides in for a meal At the southern extremity of the world lives the Emperor Penguin, better adapted to the cold than any other animal on earth. Short feathers made up of tiny filaments that trap the air in a continuous layer all around the body enable the adults and chicks to survive some of the coldest conditions on Earth, the Antarctic ice-cap in winter. The champion of the Arctic, in the cold north, is the ivory gull. This beautiful snow-white gull breeds further north than any other bird, and it perfectly adapted to the conditions which defeat most other life forms. It lives here all year-round, even in the dreary winter dark. The bar-headed goose breeds in one of the most desolate places on earth - high up on the Tibetan plateau, deep within the heart of the vast Asian continent.

Equally desolate, but much hotter is the vast barren landscape of the Atacama Desert in South America, with not a green leaf in sight. The savage, searing sun heats the grey sand up to temperatures as high as 50C. In this dreadful desert grey gulls live untroubled by predators. But they have to fly hundreds of miles to find food. There are many other examples of birds living on the edge. The oilbird lives in the total blackness of Venezuelan caves. The rufous hummingbird survives and breed at altitudes of 9000ft and at temperatures well below freezing by making a nest of the highest insulate qualities, a network of lichen and spiders web, as good as the finest down. Emperor Penguin males shuffle along with the eggs they are caring for The gouldian finch, one of world's most beautiful birds, requires fire for its food. It feeds mainly on the seeds of one plant - speargrass. It is only after fires - started by accident or by man - have cleared the undergrowth that the birds can reach the seeds on the ground. Another bird that lives on the elemental edge is the Temmincks courser in Africa.

It seeks grassland that has just been razed by fire for its nesting habitat. Yet there are practical benefits in such a forbidding terrain. A flush of insects follows the inferno; and the open vistas enable it to see predators. There have been many extinctions as birds edged up evolutionary blind alleys, and as periodic ice ages swept up and down the latitudes. In one prolonged period of cold about 3 million years ago, climate changes may have caused the extinction of a quarter of the existing bird species. But, armed with the beak, one of the most versatile of all nature's feeding implements, birds have colonized the world. It's as if humans had developed a hundred thousand different versions of the knife and fork. The Gouldian Finch High in the New Zealand Alps lives a bird that finds food with a unique beak. In shallow, gravelly streams the wrybill probes for larvae under heavy boulders it couldn't hope to shift. It has the only beak in the entire bird world that's bent to one side (the right). Today the main threat posed to birds comes from man, his destructive tendencies and his manipulation of the environment.

The life of birds has changed enormously since man spread widely around the planet, and began to develop and despoil it. Man is the primary force threatening the natural world. Habitat destruction, hunting, introduction of alien species and pollution combine to threaten almost 1000 species of birds world-wide. Perhaps the best known bird extinction is the passenger pigeon, a North American species. It may once have been the commonest bird that has ever lived on earth. There was a population of an estimated two billion birds in colonial days, when huge overflying flocks would darkened the sky. But even these phenomenal numbers could not guarantee the bird's existence. European colonists cut down the beech forests that provided food for the pigeons, and slaughtered the birds for food. The last wild pigeon was shot by a boy in 1900; Martha, the last captive bird, died in Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. Birds living on small islands are highly vulnerable to extinction. Many have become flightless in the absence of natural predators, and when man arrived, with rats, cats and other animals, the birds stand little chance. Over 90% of birds that have become extinct during historical times lived on islands.

The wrybill has a unique curved beak The dodo is the tragic symbol of bird extermination. This large, flightless, turkey-sized pigeon lived on the tropical island of Mauritius. A fruit-eater, it had little reason to move fast or fly. It was easy prey for man the hunter. The sailor Volquard Iversen, shipwrecked on Mauritius for 5 days in 1662, gave the last eye witness account. He wrote: "They were larger than geese but not able to fly. Instead of wings they had small flaps, but they could run very fast." Not fast enough, though, for human hunters, Only fossils and a few preserved specimens remain to remind us of this tragic species. On the islands of New Zealand you can still glimpse what the world would have been like if birds had won the battle with the early mammals and now ruled the earth. These islands, with no endemic mammals, and isolated for so long from man, became a true paradise for birds, many of them flightless.

The dodo There were twelve species of moas, including the tallest bird that has ever been known, The first human settlers on these islands saw these giants alive, then proceeded to slaughter them. Within 200-300 years most of the moas' habitat was destroyed, and all the moas were hunted to extinction in one of the greatest mass extinctions of birds in man's history. But many extraordinary birds still live only in New Zealand, including the strange, nocturnal kiwi, and the heaviest parrot in the world, the flightless kakapo, which is itself on the brink of extinction. The other effect man is having on birds is the phenoenom of climate change, caused by global warming, believed to be mainly a result of the burning of fossil fuels. One of the likeliest victims is the Bermuda Petrel, surely doomed if the earth gets much warmer. The bird nests in burrows on the side of the cliffs just above the sea-line. But with increasing warming of the earth and the danger of the sea-level rising, these petrels risk being washed out of their burrows. The Bermuda Petrel's history has been one of continuous disasters.

In the early 1600s, the birds were hunted and eaten in their thousands by the first sailors and settlers that arrived on Bermuda. The petrels only come to land at night, and the sailors called them "cahow" after their fearsome call. Within 20 years of the islands being settled, the birds were thought to be extinct, and for 300 years they remained a folk memory. In 1951 about 18 pairs of birds were re-discovered nesting in shallow burrows and rock crevices on tiny offshore islands. Man makes a damaging impact on the natural environment of birds through farming, forestry and building works. There are many casualties: in Britain ornithologists have noted the decline of many once-common birds like the song thrush and the skylark, because of intensivive farming regimes. The British government now publishes an annual index containing certain key bird species; it has accepted the tenet that a fall in bird numbers damages the citizen's "quality of life." Sometimes birds destroy their own habitat. La Perouse Bay on the Hudson Bay in the Canadian Arctic is a traditional breeding ground for the lesser snow goose.

After reserves were created to protect the birds, the population grew to such an extent that the birds actually ate themselves out of their own food. La Perouse Bay today is a saline desert - the geese have eaten and destroyed all the natural grasses that used to grow here. But such self destruction is the exception. The birds that survive best tend be those most tolerant of man, or most able to take advantage of him. Birds like the waxwing, which have become a major problem for blueberry and strawberry growers in Florida and other states. Flocks of 500-1000 tiny birds can wipe out a whole blueberry crop within a few days. Some birds, perversely, actually benefit from the pollution from intensive farming. The concentrated fertilisers farmers apply to fields may be good for the crops, but when they are washed out by the rain they contaminate streams and rivers. Rich nutrients cause some aquatic plants and invertebrates to flourish at the expense of the delicate balance of life in the waters. This is bad for many birds, but not the ruddy duck, a small diving duck of North America. It feeds on the small aquatic Chironomid larvae in lake and river sediment.

The larvae thrive in agricultural run-off. Ruddy duck feed on the burgeoning larvae and are also doing well. The densely crowded and noisy cityscape would seem to be a highly inhospitable place for birds, unlike anything nature has produced. And yet there are birds which survive and prosper in the city. These are the generalists - able to eat anything and nest anywhere. Black vultures in Sao Paulo city are never more than a flap and a glide from all the fetid rubbish they can eat. These urban scavengers nest on window ledges and roofs of tall skyscrapers. Some spend hours each day basking in front of warm exhausts from air-conditioner units. Moa foraging for food In Kampala, Uganda, marabou storks are seen on the Sheraton Hotel. In parts of Africa the white stork now only nests on buildings. In downtown Manhattan, peregrine falcons can be seen hawking down the "canyons" between buildings for small birds. In the black townships of South Africa, red-footed falcons roost in large numbers. They often select a large tree close to a source of light and pick off the many insects attracted to it.

In Trafalgar Square, London, in the middle of one of the world's largest cities, pigeons outnumber people. These unfussy feeders survive easily on the many scraps of food. The many city window ledges and concrete structures provide ample nesting sites, perfect substitutes for the cliff ledges that are their natural nesting places. Many storks have adapted well to man Birds also receive immeasurable assistance from the active caring of millions of people around the world. The food put out by ordinary homeowners benefits countless birds. Many Americans and Canadians feed hummingbirds. The profusion of artificial feeders seems to changing the migration paths of the some species. In Arizona thousands of hummingbirds come each day to one particular garden feeder. Many people put up gourds or more expensive bird houses for the purple martin. Now the bird prefers the articifial structures to its traditional home. There are many more examples throughout the world. In Britain the passion by householders for feeding birds in harsh weather is known to support a number of declining species. The main bird British body, the RSPB, has 1 million members.

Promoting alternative methods of food production and income for local people in underdeveloped countries is crucial to successfully protecting wild birds' habitats; this is the approach that is increasingly being taken by conservation projects around the world. Local people are being encouraged to look on birds and other wild creatures as economic assets, for example making their area more attractive to tourists. In a Cameroon village, elders struck a deal with western conservationists to save the forest containing their scred bird, the Bannerman's turaco. Near Melbourne in Australia tourists pay big money to watch the nightly parade of the little penguins, and fund their conservation. There are many examples of committed conservation projects which have saved birds otherwise doomed to extinction. Schemes to rescue the Gurney's pitta, the western tragopan and Bannermann's turaco are just a few of the many integrated conservation projects currently underway. Birdhouses have become the favored homes of many birds The programme to save the black robin on the Chatham Islands off the coast of New Zealand in 1976 is one of most famous conservation success stories of all. There were just seven birds left on all the islands, and only one was a female.

Scientists removed the female's eggs as soon as they were laid, so inducing her to lay more than one clutch per season. The eggs were placed into the tiny nests of surrogate parents (warblers and tomtits). The robins were then raised as the tomtits' own chicks and fed up to, and past, fledging. Today there are more than 200 pairs of robins on the Chatham Islands. The idea of using surrogate parents to incubate eggs has been widely copied. A black robin In North America a remarkable breeding programme has brought the whooping crane back from the brink of extinction, from just 16 pairs to over 300. They are fed with a crane-shaped glove puppet to stop them becoming humanised. But it's not enough to raise the cranes by hand. Somehow they must find the way to their traditional wintering grounds. Idaho farmer and whooping crane breeder Kent Clegg knows what to do. When the time is right, he leads them south to New Mexico. Behind his microlight. So where are birds going? More extinctions are certain, as man drives on to conquer the remotest parts of the globe, and populations grow and climate continues to change.

But other species birds will return to old habitats, often with man's help. One remarkable example is the red kite, a bird wiped out by Victorian hunters in England, and now thriving in a heavily populated area just 20 miles north of London where several pairs were reintroduced in the early 1990s. They fend for themselves, feeding on a ready supply of small mammals killed on the road. And the shape of birds to come? That can only be guessed at, as birds continue to adapt to habitats and changing conditions. One thing is certain. Such a versatile creature will always be with us, and with our distant descendants. Remembering a Lost Bird: Lessons From the Past for a Sustainable Future by Stanley A. Temple - YouTube Remembering a Lost Bird: Lessons From the Past for a Sustainable Future by Stanley A. Temple Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Oct 16, 2014 In 1914, the last surviving Passenger Pigeon died in a Cincinnati zoo. This sobering event ended a calamitous half- century during which the pigeon declined from billions to one, and then to none, as a result of uncontrolled market hunting and the resulting disruption of nesting colonies. The loss of one of the world’s most abundant birds stands as the iconic extinction event in our country’s history.Accounts by early naturalists such as John James Audubon describe flocks darkening the sky. In 1871, the largest nesting ever recorded occurred in central Wisconsin. That well-documented colony of many millions of birds covered 850 square miles with nests in almost every tree. In 1947, Aldo Leopold penned one of the most poignant essays ever written about extinction, On a Monument to the Pigeon, which later appeared in his classic book, A Sand County Almanac. Stanley A. Temple is the Beers-Bascom Professor Emeritus in Conservation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For 32 years, he held the academic position once occupied by Aldo Leopold.

He has spent his career working to save endangered species and the habitats upon which they depend. Professor Temple is currently a Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation and has received major awards from the Society for Conservation Biology, The Wildlife Society, the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, the American Ornithologists’ Union, the Explorer’s Club, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been President of the Society for Conservation Biology and Chairman of the Board of The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin. Category Scientists Aim to Bring the Passenger Pigeon Back from Extinction - SPIEGEL ONLINE Scientists Aim to Bring the Passenger Pigeon Back from Extinction The Second Cooing Raising Passenger Pigeons from the Dead The world has been without passenger pigeons since 1914. Now, scientists want to bring them back. Geneticist Ben Novak has embarked on the project and has begun collecting passenger pigeon DNA from natural history museums. His "de-extinction" efforts are not without critics. By Philip Bethge Philip Bethge Jahrgang 1967, ist seit 1999 Wissenschaftsredakteur beim Nachrichtenmagazin DER SPIEGEL.

Nach einem Biologiestudium an der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel untersuchte der Zoologe in Tasmanien/Australien zunächst die Lebensweise von Zwergpinguinen. Später promovierte er an der University of Tasmania über den Energiehaushalt und das Tauchverhalten der Schnabeltiere. Das journalistische Handwerk erlernte Bethge Mitte der Neunzigerjahre an der Evangelischen Journalistenschule in Berlin. Von 2009 bis 2013 arbeitete er als Wissenschaftskorrespondent für den SPIEGEL in San Francisco. Encyclopedia Smithsonian: The Passenger Pigeon (Martha is now in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History but is not on view.) The passenger pigeons or wild pigeon belongs to the order Columbiformes. Its scientific name is Ectopistes migratorius.

Ectopistes means "moving about or wandering," and migratorius means "migrating." The scientific name carries the connotation of a bird that not only migrates in the spring and fall, but one that also moves about from season to season to select the most favorable environment for nesting and feeding. The physical appearance of the bird was commensurate with its flight characteristics of grace, speed, and maneuverability. The head and neck were small; the tail long and wedge-shaped, and the wings, long and pointed, were powered by large breast muscles that gave the-capability for prolonged flight. The average length of the male was about 16� inches. The female was about an inch shorter. The head and upper parts of the male pigeon were a clear bluish gray with black streaks on the scapulars and wing coverts. Patches of pinkish iridescence at the sides of the throat changed in color to a shining metallic bronze, green, and purple at the back of the neck. The lower throat and breast were a soft rose, gradually shading to white on the lower abdomen. The irides were bright red; the bill small, black and slender; the feet and legs a clear lake red.

The colors of the female were duller and paler. Her head and back were a brownish gray, the iridescent patches of the throat and back of the neck were less bright, and the breast was a pale cinnamon-rose color. The mourning dove, Zenaidura macroura, closest relative of the passenger pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius resembles the passenger pigeon in shape and coloring. This has often led to mistaken identification and false reports of passenger pigeons long after they became extinct. The mourning dove is smaller and less brightly colored than the passenger pigeon. The iris of the adult mourning dove is dark brown; that of the adult male passenger pigeon was bright red, and the females was orange. The adult mourning dove has a small black spot on its throat below and behind its ear. The passenger pigeon lacked this spot. When rising in flight, the mourning dove makes a whistling sound with its wings, whereas the passenger pigeon did not. The juveniles-of the mourning dove and passenger pigeon resembled each other more closely than did the adults. The young mourning dove does not have the black spot on its neck. The iris of the young passenger pigeon was a hazel color.

The range of the passenger pigeon in its migrations was from central Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia south to the uplands of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Only a few birds were ever reported as far west as the Dakotas. The main nesting area was in the region of the Great Lakes and east to New York. The main wintering sites stretched from Arkansas to North Carolina south to the uplands of the Gulf Coast states. The habitat of the passenger pigeon was mixed hardwood forests. The birds depended on the huge forests for their spring nesting sites, for winter "roosts," and for food. The mainstays of the passenger pigeon's diet were beechnuts, acorns, chestnuts, seeds, and berries found in the forests. Worms and insects supplemented the diet in spring and summer. In the winter the birds established "roosting" sites in the forests of the southern states. Each "roost" often had such tremendous numbers of birds so crowded and massed together that they frequently broke the limbs of the trees by their weight. In the morning the birds flew out in large flocks scouring the countryside for food. At night they returned to the roosting area.

Their scolding and chattering as they settled down for the night could be heard for miles. When the food supply became depleted or the weather conditions adverse, the birds would establish a new roosting area in a more favorable location. The migratory flights of the passenger pigeon were spectacular. The birds flew at an estimated speed of about sixty miles an hour. Observers reported the sky was darkened by huge flocks that passed overhead. These flights often continued from morning until night and lasted for several days. The time of the spring migration depended on weather conditions. Small flocks sometimes arrived in the northern nesting areas as early as February, but the main migration occurred in March and April. The nesting sites were established in forest areas that had a sufficient supply of food and water available within daily flying range. Since no accurate data were recorded on the passenger pigeon, it is only possible to give estimates on the size and population of these nesting areas. A single site might cover many thousands of acres and the birds were so congested in these areas that hundreds of nests could be counted in a single tree.

A large nesting in Wisconsin was reported as covering 850 square miles, and the number of birds nesting there was estimated at 136,000,000. The nests were loosely constructed of small sticks and twigs and were about a foot in diameter. A single, white, elongated egg was laid per nesting. The incubation period was from twelve to fourteen days. Both parents shared the duties of incubating the egg and feeding the young. The young bird was naked and blind when born, but grew and developed rapidly. When feathered it was similar in color to that of the adult female, but its feathers were tipped with white, giving it a scaled appearance. It remained in the nest about fourteen days, being fed and cared for by the parent birds. By this time it had grown large and plump and usually weighed more than either of its parents. It had developed enough to take care of itself and soon fluttered to the ground to hunt for its food. Authorities differ as to how many times the passenger pigeon nested in a season. The general opinion was that the birds normally nested twice in a season, but this can neither be proved nor disproved since no accurate records of nestings were made.

During the late summer the flocks of passenger pigeons frequently moved about at random in the northern forests in search of food, but as fall approached and temperature changes became sharp the flocks of passenger pigeons began their migration to the southern wintering areas. Because the passenger pigeon congregated in such huge numbers, it needed large forests for its existence. When the early settlers cleared the eastern forests for farmland, the birds were forced to shift their nesting and roosting sites to the forests that still remained. As their forest food supply decreased, the birds began utilizing the grain fields of the farmers. The large flocks of passenger pigeons often caused serious damage to the crops, and the farmers retaliated by shooting the birds and using them as a source of meat. However, this did not seem to seriously diminish the total number of birds. The notable decrease of passenger pigeons started when professional hunters began netting and shooting the birds to sell in the city markets. Although the birds always had been used as food to some extent, even by the Indians, the real slaughter began in the 1800s. There were no laws restricting the number of pigeons killed or the way they were taken.

Because the birds were communal in habit, they were easily netted by using baited traps and decoys. The birds were shot at the nesting sites, young squabs were knocked out of nests with long sticks, and pots of burning sulphur were placed under the roosting trees so the fumes would daze the birds and they would fall to the ground. Hundreds of thousands of passenger pigeons were killed for private consumption and for sale on the market, where they often sold for as little as fifty cents a dozen. By 1850 the destruction of the pigeons was in full force, and by 1860 it was noticed that the numbers of birds seemed to be decreasing, but still the slaughter continued. One of the last large nestings of passenger pigeons occurred at Petoskey, Michigan, in.1878. Here 50,000 birds per day were killed and this rate continued for nearly five months. When the adult birds that survived this massacre attempted second nestings at new sites, they were soon located by the professional hunters and killed before they had a chance to raise any young. The concerned voices of conservationists had little effect in stopping the slaughter.

Finally a bill was passed in the Michigan legislature making it illegal to net pigeons within two miles of a nesting area, but the law was weakly enforced and few arrests were made for violations. By the early 1890s the passenger pigeon had almost completely disappeared. It was now too late to protect them by passing laws. In 1897 a bill was introduced in the Michigan legislature asking for a ten-year closed season on passenger pigeons. This was a completely futile gesture as the birds still surviving, as lone individuals, were too few to reestablish the species. The passenger pigeon's technique of survival had been based on mass tactics. There had been safety in its large flocks which often numbered hundreds of thousands of birds. When a flock of this size established itself in an area, the number of local animal predators (such as wolves, foxes, weasels, and hawks) was so small compared to the total number of birds that little damage could be inflicted on the flock as a whole. This colonial way of life became very dangerous when man became a predator on the flocks.

When the birds were massed together, especially at a nesting site, it was easy for man to slaughter them in such huge numbers that there were not enough birds left to successfully reproduce the species. The interests of civilization, with its forest clearing and farming, were diametrically opposed to the interests of the birds which needed the huge forests to survive. The passenger pigeons could not adapt themselves to existing in small flocks. When their interests clashed with the interests of man, civilization prevailed. The wanton slaughter of the birds only sped up the process of extinction. The converting of forests to farmland would have eventually doomed the passenger pigeon. The one valuable result of the extinction of the passenger pigeon was that it aroused public interest in the need for strong conservation laws. Because these laws were put into effect, we have saved many other species of our migratory birds and wildlife. Prepared by the Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History in cooperation with Public Inquiry Services, Smithsonian Institution Operation Migration GETTING AROUND (map page) Make plans to join us to celebrate and support whooping cranes during this fun weekend near the summer home for Operation Migration's whooping cranes.

Take part in the behind-the-scenes-tour at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge on Friday, join us for dinner Friday evening at the Mascoutin Golf Club near Berlin, WI. Attend the full day Crane Festival in Princeton on Saturday, featuring a pancake breakfast hosted by the Berlin Rotary Club. Bid on the many items in the fantastic silent auction. Sit in on the speaker sessions throughout the day. Jump to the registration page Friday, Sept. 12th morning - Meet at the Visitors Information Center of Necedah National Wildlife Refuge at 11am - In 2001 Operation Migration, in conjunction with the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), initiated a program to re-establish a migratory flock of Whooping Cranes to central Wisconsin using Necedah as the northernmost point on the migratory path. Each spring approximately 80 Whooping Cranes, including several nesting pairs, return to the Necedah area. Join us for a guided tour that will take you on roads not generally open to the public. Traveling via bus, the group will explore the more remote areas of the refuge in search of these magnificent birds. Bring your cameras!

$25 per person includes box lunch (see meal options on registration page). Friday Sept. 12th evening (6pm) - Join us for dinner at the Mascoutin Golf & Country Club where we will dine with featured speaker Stanley Temple.​ Exclusive LIVE & Silent Auction items will be available. $50 per person with a portion of each ticket going to support the Class of 2014 Whooping cranes. Cocktail hour: 6pm - cash bar. Dinner 7pm. Meal options include baked chicken, beef tips or alfredo pasta. All meals include mashed potato & gravy, vegetable, salad, roll, non-alcoholic beverage. Cash bar available. Our after dinner speaker will be Mr. Stanley Temple, Senior Fellow and Science Advisor with the Aldo Leopold Foundation. His talk marks the centennial of the extinction of the passenger pigeon in 1914. Temple uses the case of the passenger pigeon to call attention to the world’s ongoing extinction crisis and our relationship with other species.

In 1914, the last surviving Passenger Pigeon, 'Martha' died in a Cincinnati Zoo, ending a calamitous half-century in which the pigeon declined from billions to one and then to none as a result of uncontrolled market hunting and the resulting disruption of nesting colonies. The loss of one of the world’s most abundant birds stands as the iconic extinction event in our country’s history. In 1947, the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology erected the Passenger Pigeon Monument at Wyalusing State Park, and for the occasion Aldo Leopold penned one of the most poignant essays ever written about extinction, "On a Monument to the Pigeon," which later appeared in his classic book A Sand County Almanac. For more than 30 years, Temple was the Beers-Bascom Professor in Conservation in the Department of Wildlife Ecology at University of Wisconsin-Madison, a position originally held by Aldo Leopold himself. After earning three degrees from Cornell University, Temple worked with endangered species on islands in the Indian Ocean and then returned to Cornell to lead the peregrine falcon reintroduction program.

Saturday, September 13th: All day Festival begins at 8am with a pancake breakfast at the Princeton School (PLEASE NOTE NEW LOCATION). Check out the vendors in the marketplace; bid on Silent Auction items; attend one (or all) of the speaker sessions! Visit the childrens activity tent. Speaker Sessions Include: Pat Fisher - Raptor Rehabilitation 9 - 9:45am: The programs 'Fisher' offers are "up close and personal" as she educates with birds 'on the glove.' The birds make learning a personal experience and are the best way to present wildlife education. Check out The Feather! Beverly Paulan - Aerial Surveys of Wildlife in Wisconsin 10 - 10:45am : Learn how the pilots with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources help to track wolves, whooping cranes, and other wildlife from their vantage point in the sky. Tom Schultz - Birding Costa Rica 11 - 11:45am: Each spring Tom leads a birding group on a tour of the Costa Rican bird hotspots. His session will feature incredible photography of the amazing birds the group has seen.

George Archibald - International Crane Foundation, Co-founder 1 - 2pm: George Archibald's visionary leadership in international conservation efforts over the past 40 years has given flight to crane conservation worldwide. In 1973, when cranes were in a perilous situation and many were on the brink of extinction, Archibald, along with Cornell University colleague, Ronald Sauey, Ph.D., established the International Crane Foundation (ICF) in Baraboo, Wisconsin as the world center for the study and preservation of cranes. Today, ICF has over 50 employees and supports conservation projects in 45 countries. Archibald is a true conservation ambassador who uses his unique brand of crane diplomacy to work in sensitive places. Join George as he recounts his recent trip to the grasslands of Mongolia to visit white-naped cranes. Joe Duff - Operation Migration 2:30 - 3:30pm: Joe is the co-founder and CEO of Operation Migration. While there are not very many humans who can include 'flying with birds' on their list of accomplishments, if one were ranking them on the number of hours and species, Joe would be at the top of the list.

Since 1993, Joe has logged hundreds of hours guiding Canada geese, Sandhill cranes, Trumpeter swans and of course Whooping cranes along pre-determined migration routes in his small aircraft. Come listen to Joe as he recounts his adventures with humor and incredible imagery. Jump to the registration page Saturday Evening Pizza Party! 6:30pm - Christiano's Green Lake, WI. (map) Join your fellow Craniacs for a fun evening with all-you-can-eat pizza and pasta! Price $20 per person inclusive. Cash bar available. Sunday Morning Bird Walk at White River Marsh - Your walk leader will be Tom Schultz: wildlife artist, experienced birder, and OM Whooping Crane handler. Ever wonder what’s going on in White River Marsh (WRM) beyond the range of the crane cam? WRM is a 12,000 acre wildlife area consisting of marsh, swamp, upland prairie and oak savannah. Once heavily farmed, this area is under management to restore these vital habitats to their natural state. Follow in the footsteps of Aldo Leopold to explore the beauty of this place that has become home to the endangered Whooping Crane and countless other species.

Limited to 20 persons. Price $30 per person. New! Sunday Evening Wrap Party. 5:30 - 8pm at Mecan River Outfitters (W720 Wisconsin Hwy. 23, Princeton, WI) Menu options: 1) Country fried chicken w/ mashed potatoes, vegetable, tossed salad & roll, beverage (coffee, tea or milk) $14 (includes tax & tip) OR 2) Vegetable stir fry, beverage (coffee, tea or milk)$11 (includes tax & tip). Cash bar available. Make reservations online and indicate meal preference. *Pls note: Attendees will pay for their meal at the Mecan Restaurant. We do ask, however, that you make your meal selection upon registering of other festival events.

Question: The last surviving example of which bird, once the most common bird in the world, died in Cincinnati Zoo in 1914?
Answer: PASSENGER PIGEON